


2am

by starrystarrytrouble



Category: Open Heart (Visual Novels)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Boss/Employee Relationship, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Kissing, Late Night Conversations, Romance, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-06
Updated: 2020-08-06
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:34:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25749712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starrystarrytrouble/pseuds/starrystarrytrouble
Summary: Ethan and MC work late on the Senator’s case. Set after bk 2 chap 9.
Relationships: Ethan Ramsey/Main Character (Open Heart)
Kudos: 25





	2am

It was 2am and they were in the Diagnostics office. Eve put her feet up on the sofa and was nearly horizontal, lying with a textbook draped across her knees. Ethan was still at his desk typing with his reading glasses on.

The Senator Farrugia case was proving hard to crack. He was due to arrive at Edenbrook in the morning and at Ethan’s insistence the Senator’s team had sent his medical records ahead, albeit with Tobias’s team delaying them as long as possible.

And the minute they arrived, shortly before 10pm, it became obvious. This case was going to be impossible.

Eve crumpled up another ball of paper she’d been making notes on and tossed it towards the waste paper basket. When she missed, she groaned at the thought of having to move.

“Don’t get up. I’ll do it.” Ethan said without looking up as if he sensed her exhaustion.

She smiled to herself and looked at him. He was as tired as she was but the fine lines etched under his eyes did nothing to detract from his handsomeness. The sharp edges of his face were painted into her memory and the softness of his lips, lips she’d felt yesterday at Mass Kenmore, all through the night and again this morning, were becoming more and more familiar.

“Are you sure you’re feeling okay?” she said casually.

“Excuse me?”

“You’re being nice.”

“I like to think I’m always perfectly collegial.”

“Okay number one, Ethan Ramsey definitely doesn’t do ‘collegial’. And number two, I meant nice nice. You know. Niiice.”

“Number three, I’m struggling to decipher what your variations of ‘nice’ mean.”

He smiled faintly and took his glasses off so she could see his eyes.

“I know things are difficult for you right now, Rookie. With Kyra, the hospital finances and now this case. I understand the pressure you’re under and I’ll help you however I can.”

“ _However_ you can?” she raised an eyebrow and laughed.

Ethan rolled his eyes, walked over to the bin and put her paper missile in the basket.

“So that’s it?” she asked gently, “You’re just being a good mentor? This isn’t about… _us_?”

Ethan turned to her. She looked ethereal in the moonlight, her dark waves pulled onto one shoulder and her green eyes looking up at him with a flash of hope. Her refusal to give up on anything, her patients, Naveen, the hospital, and now him, mirrored his own stubbornness.

He’d long recognised that under her influence he’d been cracking since the moment they met. Losing his inhibitions and succumbing to her intentions so slowly that he barely noticed it until he was too far gone.

And now it was culminating, starting at his apartment after the softball game, and most recently this morning when he’d intended to drop her off at work but they’d ended up making out in his car like teenagers.

He sat down beside her, pulled her close to him and watched her eyes flutter shut as he pressed his lips over hers in a soft kiss.

“Of course it’s about _us_.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!
> 
> Tumblr: @starrystarrytrouble


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